Tom and wife, Lisa Jo, stand on the stairs down to their dock along the Wabash River near where they live in Terre Haute. The Baers have lived in their home for 25 years but have never been contacted by Duke Energy about being at risk or potentially flooded with toxic waste should a dam around the coal ash pits at Duke's Wabash River power plant fail.(Photo: Tom Baer)

Before Thomas Baer and his wife, Lisa Jo, moved into their house along the Wabash River 25 years ago, they had all but given up hope of finding their slice of paradise. They had searched for 14 years. But now they felt it was worth the wait.

The active couple could launch their boats directly from their backyard. They could watch sunsets with their two daughters from their wraparound porch out back. And they could sense the history of the home's century-old foundation as they walked its halls.

Which is why Baer can hardly image what it might look like flooded with ash.

"I think the word to describe it would be catastrophic," he said. "The house would still be here, but it would never be the same."

A view of Tom Baer and wife Lisa Jo's home, formerly the Forth Harrison Boat and Saddle Club, from the Wabash River where they live in Terre Haute. The Baers have lived in their home for 25 years but have never been contacted by Duke Energy about being at risk or potentially flooded with toxic waste should a dam around the coal ash pits at Duke's Wabash River power plant fail.(Photo: Tom Baer)

The Baers' Terre Haute home is one of dozens of houses, businesses and farm fields in Indiana that could be flooded with toxic waste should dams at Duke Energy's coal ash pits scattered around the state fail, according to maps the utility giant recently released for the first time.

The energy company made public earlier this month documents that detail the potential emergency scenarios at its four Indiana power plants, which dot the Wabash and Ohio rivers. The analysis shows that a breach of the dams and berms around the pits — which hold ash laced with harmful chemicals produced when coal is burned for energy — would likely flood the neighboring communities and waterways under feet of water and waste in some areas.

“Nothing demonstrates the risk better than what would be buried in coal ash if one of these structures failed,” said Peter Harrison, an attorney with advocacy group Waterkeeper Alliance, whose work focuses on coal ash.

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This is Duke's Cayuga Generating Station along the Wabash river, as seen from the air, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. This is a coal ash pit.(Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)

Such breaches are rare, although engineering studies commissioned by Duke acknowledge that some of its coal ash pits are considered "unstable" and "insufficient."

Federal law requires such maps and documents be available to the public, yet many Hoosiers are just now learning of these potential risks.

“We need to go back to the fact that this is information Duke was illegally concealing from people who live and work around the plants and the public at large,” Harrison told IndyStar.

Duke insists that its decision to initially withhold the plans was based on historical interpretations of state law that are designed to safeguard information about critical infrastructures. The company released the maps and emergency response plans after the Alliance, Earthjustice and several national and state environmental advocacy groups, including the Hoosier Environmental Council, threatened to sue.

"When environmental groups raised concerns, we revisited the issue and reviewed how other utilities have managed the expectations of the rule," said Angeline Protogere, the spokeswoman for the company’s Indiana operations. "We agreed it was appropriate to post additional information, and we have now done so."

Preparing for Disaster

Those plans show that Duke has met with emergency responders in the local communities, including the emergency management agencies in Vigo, Vermillion, Floyd and Gibson counties — home of the Wabash River, Cayuga, Gallagher and Gibson plants, respectively.

The Vigo and Floyd county agency directors both say they have been aware of the maps and have worked with Duke to go over planned responses in the event of an emergency.

Gibson County's emergency management director said they run through scenarios of what the various local agencies will do, based on the action plan that Duke drafts and provides to them.

"In our meetings, these guys have come out from North Carolina and tell us about this is what happened there and it could happen here and so we want to prevent it," Terry Hedges said of meetings on the Gibson plant, one of the largest power plants in the country. "The worst scenario would be it reaching the Wabash River and taking it down south into some farmland, but it is unlikely they will have an issue."

What happened in North Carolina has garnered national attention, both within and outside the coal power industry: In 2014, an underground pipe burst at a Duke plant, spilling nearly 40,000 tons of coal ash waste into the Dan River.

It took nearly a week to stop the spill and the toxic sludge spread nearly 70 miles downstream. Chemicals and contaminants in coal ash waste include arsenic and chromium — which are known carcinogens, for example — and selenium, which can be particularly dangerous to fish and wildlife and lead to mutations if unchecked.

Now, several years later, the company is still working to clean up the ash, Harrison said, and its potential effects on the environment, water quality and wildlife are starting to be studied and better understood.

The maps for Duke's Indiana plants show fewer structures and people at risk than for its plants in North Carolina, for example, where more than 300 homes and businesses could be flooded during failures. That difference is largely because the Hoosier generating stations are in floodplains along major rivers where fewer people live, Harrison said — however, that also means waste from a spill could spread more quickly and the ash pits themselves face more wear and tear from flooding and river flow.

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This is Duke's Cayuga Generating Station along the Wabash river, as seen from the air, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017. An area full of coal is seen at the right.(Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)

A federal rule passed in 2015 that regulates coal ash requires utilities evaluate the structural stability of the ash pits and make the evaluations available online.

Those documents for Duke's many Indiana pits show that some have "unstable" or "insufficient" safety ratings, according to engineering firms hired by Duke to complete the assessment. More than a handful also have "significant hazard" characterizations, meaning that a failure would not likely result in a loss of human life, but could cause economic loss, environmental damage or disruption of critical facilities.

Duke's Protogere noted that the company has made several changes since the safety ratings were assigned that have helped improve the stability of their ash pits, such as removing trees. Duke engineers also regularly inspect the impoundments and conduct additional evaluations, she said.

Duke as a Neighbor

But if public safety is a priority, Tim Maloney of the Hoosier Environmental Council has a question: Why hasn't Duke communicated the potential risks or threats of a failure to those residents, business owners and farmers who would be affected?

“If they are the ones creating the potential risk," Maloney said, "then they should be the ones working to not only mitigate it and prepare for it, but also reaching out to residents and businesses to let them know."

Harrison said several people he spoke with around the Gallagher plant during a recent trip there said they were unaware they were in the potential flood zone — effectively turning their riverfront properties into potentialswamps of ash.

Baer said that neither he nor any of his neighbors he has spoken with have been contacted by Duke or informed of the potential threat in the event of a breach. He was not aware of the maps before being contacted by IndyStar.

While frustrated that Duke has not reached out to his family and of the belief that the company has the responsibility to do so, Baer said he also believes that the breaches and floods modeled in the maps are a worst-case scenario that hopefully are unlikely to happen.

"It's one of those things that could happen, and all our efforts to clean up the Wabash River could be ruined by one spill from one industry." he said, "But I trust Duke Energy is doing its due diligence to keep it from happening and I have to have some faith in them."

Protogere said that the company, now that the maps and plans have been released, is evaluating next steps for communicating with Indiana residents or businesses near its plants.

Duke also is in the process of permanently closing most of its ash ponds at its plants, which Protogere says reduces the risk of failures at the ponds.

There are two methods of closing the ash ponds: to put a cap on the unlined pond and leave the ash in place, or to excavate the ash and move it to a lined landfill. Both methods require that water in the pit is removed, which would allow Duke to begin a process to reclassify the structures so they no longer need an emergency action plan.

Maloney with the environmental council views the threat of a potential failure and closure of the pits somewhat differently.

"The inundation maps are just one more piece of information that adds to what we think is a compelling case for the ash to be removed to a safer and more secure storage area," he told IndyStar. "These are one more example and aspect of the risk that will persist if the ash should be allowed to be left and capped in place."

Duke submitted proposals to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management late last year to close more than 10 coal ash pits at its four plants. Those plans would be among the state's first decided under the federal coal ash rule, created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency two years ago.

The utility is proposing to close the majority of its pits through the cap-in-place method — which scientists and environmental groups believe poses a serious threat to public health and the environment by allowing the ash to continue leaching contaminants into the groundwater.

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Rust-colored material is oxidized iron on the banks of the Wabash River, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, over the hill from the Duke's Cayuga Generating Station which has coal ash ponds they are proposing to cap in place.(Photo: Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar)

The state environmental agency would not say whether the recently released maps and plans would factor into its decision about whether to approve the plans or require the pits be closed through excavation — a practice being mandated in some other states.

IDEM spokeswoman Tara Wolf said the plans must provide for stability of the slopes on the pits to prevent movement of the capping system during and after closure, and that they will evaluate the plans based on how well they comply with the rules.

Duke is encouraging the public to review the maps and plans on its website, and said they also welcome any questions from the public that can be directed to CoalAshQuestions@duke-energy.com.

Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at (317) 444-6129. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

This story has been updated to clarify that the Vermillion County Emergency Management Agency has been in communication and worked with Duke Energy to be prepared in the event of a coal ash pit failure and spill.